Michigan AG Nessel, city of Romulus sue Homeland Security agency to block immigration jail

Robert Snell and Julia Cardi, The Detroit News on Mar 24, 2026

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ROMULUS, Mich. — The state of Michigan and Romulus city officials filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday to stop the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from using a city warehouse as a detention center for 500 immigrants.

A detention center is inappropriate for the site near Detroit Metropolitan Airport due to traffic and flooding concerns and because it is also near several schools and residential neighborhoods, according to the lawsuit filed by Attorney General Dana Nessel against the Trump administration.

State officials said at a Tuesday news conference that the state's lawsuit contends President Donald Trump's administration has flouted the federal Administrative Procedure Act about an appropriate place for detention, existing facilities and the consideration of environmental consequences.

"You cannot move the wetlands behind the proposed detention center. You cannot move the school, you cannot move the neighborhood, and you certainly cannot move the floodplain," Nessel said.

The Trump administration also violated the Intergovernmental Cooperation Act by not seeking any coordination with Romulus or state officials, Nessel argued.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

The facility has become a focal point of tension surrounding the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration in recent weeks. Last month, the fury over the prospect of an ICE facility in the city led to a unanimous City Council resolution to oppose the plan after a protest in front of City Hall led to one person throwing a punch at another.

The 250,000-square-foot property at 7525 Cogswell Road is one of about two dozen industrial warehouses around the country that the Trump administration plans to purchase in a bid to increase Immigration and Customs Enforcement's detention capacity.

The Department of Homeland Security paid $34.7 million for the warehouse last month, according to city land records, 57% more than the last time the property was sold.

"DHS’s plan has thrown the Romulus community into disarray, with multiple protests occurring at or near the Romulus warehouse, taxing Romulus’s public safety medical services resources and diverting the city’s limited resources to respond to activities stemming from this latest outsider’s incursion into Romulus’s jurisdiction," lawyers Neil Giovanatti and David Greco wrote in the lawsuit.

Mayor Robert McCraight said at the Tuesday press conference that Romulus' public infrastructure is already strained by the presence of Detroit Metro Airport, expressways and railways that crisscross the city, and an injection well to which Romulus public officials have long objected. He said the city has a history of being "overburdened and under-resourced."

"Locating facilities like this in our community will be an incredible burden on our already limited public -safety resources," McCraight said. "We have already had to dedicate numerous man-hours for specific training, as well as handling protests, and the site hasn't even opened yet."

Some details emerged about the planned detention facility in Romulus when DHS published a federal floodplain notice in late February. The notice said about 19 acres of the 27-acre property built in 2000 would be used for a "secure operational area" and would be enclosed by installing 3,800 feet of new security fencing.

ICE has told The Detroit News the facility and its construction are expected to bring 1,458 jobs to the area and would contribute $149.9 million to the economy, though “these economic benefits don’t even take into account that removing criminals from the streets makes communities safer for business owners and customers."

Trump has argued that he campaigned and was elected on a mandate to deport immigrants who are in the country illegally, especially violent criminals. A Detroit News review in September found that immigrants who have never been convicted of a crime now make up the majority of those arrested by Detroit's U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office.

The Department of Homeland Security paid $34.7 million for the warehouse last month, according to city land records, 57% more than the last time the property was sold.

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